This one has always intrigued me: My Tennessee family members (and others) almost never use the word "home" ... they prefer "the house"; as in "I'm fixin to go to the house" ... instead of "I'm fixin to go home". What is even more interesting is that this is mostly a male thing (the females usually say "home") ... it seems almost as if the guys feel sissyfied (is that a word?) to mention "home". I have even heard guys make statements like "Back around the house ... blah, blah, blah ..." (instead of "Back home ... blah, blah, blah"). Now I occasionally hear such in Texas ... but I suspect they are from Tennessee.

"Home" sounds more personal to me than "house". If you're leaving work after a long, grueling day and vant to be let alone, then you say that you're going home. If you think that, once there, you'll recover enough to have the guys over to watch a game, you suggest they stop by the house at [whatever] time. If you invited them to watch the playoffs at your home, it would sound a little odd.

You can distance yourself from mundane, repetitive tasks by referring to them as housework or household chores. (Of course, this also clarifies that you're not doing school homework.) Maybe the reason banks offer home loans is to help the prospective buyer feel more warm and fuzzy about the paperwork and significant investment...